SwiftVets.com

[FlyLow]

The Omegaletter ^ | Sept.10, 2004 | Jack Kinsella

http://www.omegaletter.com/

When the Swift Boat veterans launched their first ad claiming John Kerry's exploits in Vietnam were, at best, wildly exaggerated and at worst, a complete lie, the Kerry campaign launched a advertising counter-offensive.

But the ads never directly addressed any of the charges. Instead, they claimed the Swift Vets were really Republican operatives working at the behest of the Bush campaign. Kerry's people were everywhere, telling everybody what a dirty trick it was. The Kerry website even has a page called "Fact Check" using John McCain to 'prove' that questioning his military service was 'dishonest and dishonorable'.

It goes on to complain; "[the]Swift Vets Funded By Longtime Texas Bush Contributors" and they are 'operated' by the "Same People Who Tried to Discredit McCain in 2000." Kerry's 'fact check' page also alleges that, "Swift Vets Hire Private Investigator to Dig Into Kerry's Past" and then proceeds to trash the reputations of each of the vets involved in the ads.

Needless to say, liberal news organs like CBS News and the New York Times were all over the story of how the Republicans were 'trashing a war hero through a surrogate group' (the Swiftees).

Indeed, the networks were so outraged that they began to dig, with the enthusiastic support of the Kerry campaign, into George Bush's National Guard service. It was bizarre, to say the least.

The network concensus was that 250-plus Vietnam veterans are all liars and Republican flacks. And that impuning Kerry's Vietnam service was a low blow.

On the other hand, the networks find nothing wrong with DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe's announcing to the voters that George Bush was AWOL from the Guard -- not because there was proof he was -- but because Bush hasn't proved he wasn't.

The latest documents to 'suddenly surface' about George W. Bush’s National Guard service allege that Bush did not quit flying jets in 1972 at the behest of or with the support of his commanding officers, as the administration has implied.

Rather, the documents purportedly show, Bush was “suspended” after flatly refusing to carry out a direct order to undertake a medical examination.

None of this information showed up in any of Bush's other military records, all of which say he completed his National Guard service honorably and was given an honorable discharge.

A good deal of the latest round of this story is based on the accounts of a "once powerful Texas Democrat" who confesses to having "abused his power" to help get numerous young men positions in the Texas National Guard - including, he alleges, George W. Bush.

Former Texas Lt, Gov Ben Barnes is now an advisor to the Kerry Campaign, so we know his motives are pure and his claims are the unvarnished truth. According to the NYT:

"Mr. Barnes maintained, as he has since 1999, that he had contacted his friend who headed the Texas Air National Guard, Brig. Gen. James Rose, not at the behest of anyone in the Bush family, but rather a Houston businessman, Sidney A. Adger, a friend of the Bushes who has died.

"Yes, I called Rose to get George Bush into the Guard, I've said that," Mr. Barnes said in his office last week in Austin. "I called Rose for other sons of prominent families, and I'm not proud of it now."

What were the odds that the request to help Bush get into the Guard would have come from a family friend who was still living? The Times also fails to mention that the other witness to this tale General Rose, is also deceased.

So based on the confession of a once-powerful Democrat who admits to abusing his power and is now an advisor to the Kerry Campaign, and his accounts of 30 year-old conversations with two men are now dead and can provide neither verification nor refutation of the claim, the Times concludes that Bush used influence to get his Guard posting.

The next twist in the story comes in the form of a former lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Guard by the name of Bob Mintz.

Mintz says he doesn't believe that Bush ever showed up for Guard duty during his Alabama assignment because he was looking for him and couldn't find him.

Mintz had heard, "that Lieutenant Bush was a fellow bachelor who might like to party with him and other pilots. Col. Mintz said "neither he nor his friends ever saw Lt. Bush."

"In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Mintz was pressed about his recollections and whether he might have missed seeing Mr. Bush, possibly because Mr. Bush was no longer flying at that point and was working in an office position. Mr. Mintz said repeatedly he never saw Lieutenant Bush," the Times gleefully reported.

The Times also make mention of a series of memos featured on 60 Minutes broadcast. The memos, critical of Bush's performance, are allegedly from the files of Bush's National Guard Commander Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian.

Assessment:

The problem with the memos is that they display some fairly advanced typesetting -- given when they were allegedly created. The most telling is the use of superscripting.

In the alleged 'memos' used to 'prove' Bush was less-than-honorable in his Guard service, the document refers to the 111th Guard Unit. The 'th' is superscripted (half sized fonts set halfway above the 111) -- something that was impossible to do using standard typewriters in 1972.

At an anti-Bush website, 'bushawol.com' are a number of other documents, including one from Col. Killian (whose signature is also on the suspect documents) including a copy of Killian's response to Bush's request for discharge.

That document, presumably written on the same typewriter, does NOT have the superscripted 'th' beside the unit numbers 111 and 147. Instead, it renders them as all typewriters of the period did, as the 111th and 147th.

A memo from Aug. 18, 1973, according to CBS, has Killian saying Col. Buck Staudt, head of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to "sugar coat" the evaluation of Lt. Bush. The memo continues, with Killian saying, "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job."

Except Col Staudt RETIRED in the year before, in 1972! How much interference can a retired officer exert? (We have a lot of former and retired military among our subscribers. What are YOUR thoughts? I look forward to reading them in the discussion forum.)

Clearly, this does more than suggest that the documents are forgeries. So, where is the outrage? Where are all the political leaders, letter writers and party activists, who just a few weeks ago were shouting as loud as they could that the evildoers — better known as Republicans — were behind the attack ads produced by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

The mainstream media outlets continuing to cover the documents as though there was no question of their authenticity, even while reporting that there is.

When ABC News did finally report the suspected forgery, it did so first by repeating all the charges against Bush made in the documents as if they were legitimate.

Having read them all into the record one more time for the viewers, it admitted there 'might' be a problem with them -- but not until they got one more airing in public.

As of yesterday, CBS continued to stand behind their story, with spokeswoman Kelli Edwards saying to the Washington Post, "As is standard practice at CBS News, each of the documents broadcast on '60 Minutes' was thoroughly investigated by independent experts, and we are convinced of their authenticity."

A CBS web site story yesterday said, "60 Minutes consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic."

On the CBS website this morning, CBS did acknowledge that the documents are questionable. Having done so, it defended the autheniticity of the memos, saying its experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents produced by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.

CBS then went on to outline the contents of the memos again -- as if it had never admitted they were questionable in the first place!

The New York Times carried the story of the Bush memos the morning after the Wednesday night '60 Minutes' broadcast on its front page. The next day, the story about the memos possibly being forged was buried on the Times' inside pages.

For its part, the Kerry campaign continues to damn the GOP for the Swiftees' ads, while openly and officially questioning the Bush military record, as if one is fair game, and the other is not.

The Kerry campaign has built itself around three central elements; Kerry is a war hero and Bush is a coward who not only avoided service in Vietnam but didn't even complete his Guard service; that Bush is a deceiver who misled the nation and Kerry will restore truth to the Oval Office; and finally, that the GOP is running a dirty smear campaign against Senator Kerry and the DNC is trying to 'rise above' negative politics.

The AWOL charges have been repeated by officials from the Democratic Party, the Kerry campaign, elected Democrats like Ted Kennedy, Charley Rangel and so on, not to mention directly from the candidate himself.

In contrast, the White House and the GOP talking heads have repeatedly denied questioning Kerry's military record and have said that Kerry's Vietnam service was 'noble'.

There is no record of any administration official questioning Kerry's military service. The Swiftees are not affiliated with the Bush campaign.

On the other hand, Ben Barnes, Terry McAuliffe and Ted Kennedy are actively working FOR Kerry. And officials with the Kerry campaign ARE directly connected to many of the 527's attacking Bush, like moveon.org and others.

The Kerry campaign has concluded that the American electorate are dumber than a bag of hammers. Sadly, given the muted reaction to this latest outrage, they may be at least partly right.

According to Scripture, the most telling hallmark of the impending advent of the antichrist is world-wide deception. When asked what would be the signs of His return, the FIRST thing Jesus said was, "Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matthew 24:4)

Speaking of the coming antichrist, the Apostle Paul wrote:

"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2nd Thessalonians 2:9-10)

I am not saying that John Kerry is the antichrist. PLEASE don't get that idea.

What I AM saying is this is a textbook example of how well propaganda works with people who are predisposed to a specific worldview.

There are people who want to believe George Bush was both a chicken for joining the National Guard and then went AWOL. (That George Bush was a fighter pilot whose test scores showed him to be highly skilled and motivated is irrelevant)

Suddenly 'evidence' appears to confirm that predispostion. The 'evidence' is in the form of questionable documents presented by a Kerry campaign advisor whose case is built around thirty-year old recollections of conversations with two now-dead officers.

Even while acknowledging the documents might be forged, the propagandists in the mainstream media continue to put the tainted and damning charges before the public as if they were concrete facts.

Those people also want to believe the John Kerry is a war hero, despite the testimony of every officer in his Vietnam chain of command to the contrary. Unlike the AWOL memos and recollections of uncorroborated 30 year-old conversations, the Swiftees are alive and testifying in person.

But their testimony is discounted with the same vehemence with which they defend the obvious lies about Bush, while calling BUSH the deceiver?

Up is down, and black is white. Truth is what people want to believe, not what is true.

"And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3)

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you." (Matthew 24:4)
_________________
EX-Helicopter driver & accomplished liar.
Wars fought, revolutions started, uprisings quelled, revivals organized,
assassinations plotted, governments overthrown, lead gospel singing,
tigers tamed, bars emptied, virgins converted, orgies organized.

[RMalloy]

Truth and Lies

Just recieved an unsolicited fundraising letter from Nancy Pelosi.
In this letter to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Race
Ms. Pelosi stated that our armed forces are George Bush's "occupation"
of Iraq. That Bush and the Republicans are zealots, charlatans, gypsies,
tramps and theives, liars, fear mongering idealogues, ect., ect.
In my time I have never seen such extremist rhetoric except from the ultra left back in the Sixties who got a kick out of slamming those in the military.
Tom Hayden, of SDS fame, and one of Jane Fonda's cohorts has recently written a piece defending Jane's trip to Hanoi, and that there has never been any "credible" evidence that the veterans returning from Vietnam
where ever spat on, that it is nonsense perpetuated through the years,
or that veterans were screamed at or mistreated. He also goes on to
defend Kerry's "testimony" how Kerry was only speaking for other vets
and that the real truth is that atrocities were committed just like Kerry
said they were. This is one of the reasons why there is such a disconnect between those who were too young to remember, or were not even
born yet, except for those whose fathers served.

Many do not know that Jane Fonda and her cohorts set up coffee houses
near bases to buddy up to the enlisted men then try to get them to
either defect or shoot their CO in the back. This is totally collaborated
by Fonda's film of that time, FTA, or F#$%$ The Army.

I'm not a Jane Fonda hater, I didn't learn until recently how her involvement back then was more than her trips to Hanoi, which were
bad enough, but she was also the one who financed the Winter Soldier
investigation in Detroit along with Kerry. She is now a current supporter
of Kerry and has donated millions for his campaign.

My grown children are unaware of Kerry's post Vietnam exploits so
I am sending them each a copy of Unfit For Command. I hope they will
read the book, it is the most important book out there written by men
who are honorable and brave and have my utmost respect. The last
time I went to a bookstore the shelves were crammed with books making fun of our President, or spreading lies about Bush, there's even a book
written by George Soros. This was when I was out looking for the Swiftvet
book. Barnes and Noble, Hastings, and Borders. None of them had the
book. I felt uncomfortable just asking if they had it. People looked at me
like I was some kind of nut. I wonder, have the local libraries put it on
their shelves? I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't. It's up to the head
librarian's discretion. At the Boulder Library they allowed a display of
***** "art", but I bet they won't allow Unfit For Command.

[ThaLeena]

I bought my book at Hastings after waiting for a whole month. They actually had the book right next to Slick Willy's book. I'm happy to report that the Swift vet book pile was way smaller than Slick Willy's.

A middle aged rather robust old hag actually had the nerve to say to me, as I expressed my happiness at finally locating the book, "but really you think it's true?" and I blatently told her "Kerry hasn't shown anyone otherwise now has he" and she huffed and walked away. Were it not for my 3 little kids standing next to me I really would have enlightened her.

The scary thing is that half the people in this country really believe and live the liberal agenda and agree with people like Pelosi, the former Wellstone, McAuliffe, Dan Rather, etc... and I seriously believe they are more of a threat to this country than any terrorist could ever be.

[Becky]

[Tilly]

Remember ... the intellectual epitome of Jane Fonda's career

was Barbarella

[Tilly]

Excellent idea.

This spring, I got offended at the "Moratorium" and by the photo's published of the Abu Garib prison scandal. I wrote directly to the station, and to 60 minutes 2, because I felt the Moratorium was an inappropriate tribute using US dead for political reasons.

And, I felt publishing the photo's of the prisoners was like putting a gun top the heads of the folks being held hostage in Iraq. I went so far to say that Berg's head should be posted above the 60 minutes 2 newsroom.

After writing the stations and the newsrooms, I wrote to the programs I watched on the channel, and to the advertisers that supported the programs I watched, saying that I regretfully intended to stop watching the programs, and would no longer buy their products, because of the actions of the news wing, and the stations' supports of the news wing.

It's tough to locate the right place to get through on the websites but not impossible.

I'm pretty sure that my e mails did no good whatsoever. If the MSM considers the US public to be a dumb as a bag full of hammers, the media themselves are as dense as a box of rocks.

However, I felt better, and we're saving a little money on products I can either find cheaper, or we really don't need.

PS: We don't really watch that much abc, nbc, cbs programming. Unfortunately, the sci fi channel is owned by either NBC or CBS ... so I had to write the sci fi channel, the programs we watch there, and also the advertisers I could locate.

[Tom Poole]

[jwb7605]